The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to industrial control systems having industrial networks and, more specifically, to a system for configuring the industrial control systems as a function of the devices connected to the industrial network.
As is known to those skilled in the art, industrial control systems are configured to control an industrial machine or process. The control system typically includes an industrial controller connected to an industrial network, which is, in turn, connected to remote devices connected at various locations on the machine or along the process. Industrial controllers are specialized electronic computers providing high reliability operation and real-time control within well-characterized performance standards. The industrial controller is configured to execute a program controlling operation of the machine or process. The industrial controller receives inputs from a portion of the remote devices via the industrial network, processes the inputs, and generates outputs to command operation of another portion of the remote devices via the industrial network. Because the requirements of the controlled machine or process are often customized according to the application requirements, the program must similarly be customized as a function of the remote devices employed by the controlled machine or process.
Many of the variables used in the control program are data received from sensors or commands provided to actuators located on the controlled machine or process and communicating with the industrial controller via the network. This data can be identified numerically, for example, as related to an input of output connection point or to a terminal on the industrial controller. Optionally, development programs executing on a programmer interface allow the programmer to select variable names, or “tags” chosen for mnemonic purposes, to identify the data. As the controlled machines and processes grow more complex, the various sensors and actuators have increased in number and in complexity. With the increased complexity, the devices offer the user a greater number of options which define how the sensor or actuator operates. For example, a manufacturer may provide a sensor having three different options and three choices for each option. As a result, the user may order this one sensor in one of twenty-seven different device definitions. On still more complex devices, there may be ten or more options each having four or five choices, resulting in an exponential increase in the number of potential configurations for a single device. Still other devices may be formed from a base device having slots or other connectors configured to receive pluggable modules or devices. The base device and pluggable devices form a composite device where the number of combinations is limited only by the number of plugs and number of pluggable modules available for the base device. Both the base device and each pluggable device may include a number of options having multiple choices. The number of choices for such a composite device is similarly expansive. Because of the large number of choices and the correspondingly large number of variables on the controller machine or process, identifying the variables numerically or generating a large number of variable names and linking them to the industrial controller can be quite difficult.
Although a configuration program executing, for example, on a programmer interface may be provided to aid the programmer with configuration of the control system, the configuration program has certain drawbacks. Historically, the configuration program has been known to include files, known as Electronic Data Sheets (EDSs), which describe the possible configuration of connections and attributes between a device and the controller or programmer interface. As new devices are added to the control system, the configuration program is updated so that the programmer is always provided with a reference to the types of data available from each component and the meaning of that data. The EDSs may be collected, for example, into a database from which they are subsequently selected. However, because a device may connect to the controller or to other devices differently as a function of the options present on the device and of the choices selected for each option, the EDS must include each of the possible configurations of the device. As previously discussed, the number of potential configurations can grow rapidly, for example, in a composite device. Thus, the number and size of EDSs required in the database has grown as a function of the complexity of the devices.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved system for configuring the control program as well as configuring communication between devices on the industrial network.